


Troy and Abed are big dummies

by topmad



Series: Troy and Abed are in love and no one can stop them [1]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Abed is confused, Boyfriends, Boys In Love, Britta and Annie are hinted, Dreamatorium, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Jeff is bi, M/M, Mutual Pining, The Proposal - Freeform, Troy is emotional, Xenomorphs (Alien), but so adorable, movie analysis, so is Evil Jeff and Annie, there is slight xenophobia, they are dummies, tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:48:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24598525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/topmad/pseuds/topmad
Summary: Troy sighed, shifting his feet around before sighing again. “It’s complicated, kind of.. I don’t know.” He looked at Jeff who just crossed his arms, waiting for Troy to explain. “Okay um, it started a bit ago, I was stuck in a vent, there was xenomorph goo and I got freaked and so after being pulled out, AbedheldmyfaceinhishandsandIthinkIrealizedi’minlovewithhim?” He sped out the end, making Jeff stare back at Troy, blinking a couple of times as he tried to process everything that just spat out of Troy’s mouth.“Okay, what?” Jeff’s face became a big look of confusion, touching the bridge of his nose with his fingers, as though he had a headache. “Firstly I don’t have any clue what the hell you are talking about with the vent thing and frankly I don’t want to know. Secondly, You just figured it out? Like seriously, you guys still are that oblivious?? Guess I owe Britta ten bucks.”
Relationships: Troy Barnes & Jeff Winger, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Series: Troy and Abed are in love and no one can stop them [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1778152
Comments: 19
Kudos: 208





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully this is good, I made it for anyone who has been watching community during quarantine !!

All of his life Troy knew one thing, and that was that Abed was his bestest friend, and that he would be for his entire life. Sure, he had other friends. The study group was and will always be “the study group”, they could never really get rid of each other or hate each other, no matter how many times they think they do and should.

Abed though, he was something Troy had never experienced before. Abed seemed to know Troy (and everyone else, Troy ignored that) better than Troy knew himself, but instead of it bothering him, he couldn’t have been more happy. They loved the same things, did the same stuff, to the point where they moved in together. The two of them used to live their lives without knowing each other, they used to be Troy and Abed. But now, they were _Troy and Abed_ , and nothing ever felt so natural before, so right to Troy. Not even being with Britta for a bit, or football. It got to the point where even his seat at the table didn’t feel as natural as their friendship.

That was all it was though, a friendship. That wasn’t a problem for the longest time, it never had to be _because_ they were best friends.

So why did it bother Troy so much now?

Something about their existence, their dynamic, was different from just two weeks ago. Nothing had exactly changed at all, not in ways that were noticeable to anyone, even Abed. It was just noticeable to Troy, and he honestly hated it. At first he tried to ignore it, but now it never left his mind.

The way he smiled whenever Abed would enter the room, or how his gaze would linger when Abed laughed. Or when he would look over and Abed was already staring, making his cheeks heat up and forcing Abed to look away quickly.

‘ _That doesn’t mean anything though_ ’ was Troy’s thought.

Abed was probably just studying him, figuring out how he was feeling or what he was thinking. That’s what he does with others, why would Troy be any different just because they were closer?

All of it made his mind race, and he couldn’t stop thinking back to that day two weeks ago when he first figured out that he felt this way.  
\---  
“Troy I really don’t think you should be doing this, what if you get hurt? Or stuck?” Annie pleaded, trying to guilt Troy into backing out of the air duct he was already half way inside of.

“Annie I’m fine, Abed you still holding onto the rope?”

“Yup!” Abed said casually, “Just tug it twice if something happens, don’t go too far.”

“Abed, don’t scare any me more than I already am feeling.” Annie said, crossing her arms as they both looked at the opening of their air conditioner duct.

“Okay, I found it. Ew gross, what the hell?” He said, shining the flashlight to where the conditioner was broken. There was some weird substance, looked almost like slime. “Guys, there's some weird black goo where the fan is, it's clogging the whole thing up.”

“Oh.” Was all Abed said, making Annie look at him with wide eyes, her brows coming together.

“Abed…. What did you do?!?” She raised her voice, making him look at her for a second before putting his hands together, the tips of his pointer fingers touching like they do when he explains things.

“Well a couple of weeks ago Troy and I watched Alien like we do every 6 months, we like to watch one at a time to really soak in the storytelling elements, so that we notice new things in the next movie that we may not have seen or noticed before.” Annie started tapping her foot, signaling that she was getting more irritated.

“Anyways, after the movie I wanted to see if I could make what the Xenomorph would look like if they had used a plasma bullet pistol instead, thus basically turning it into goo. I looked up one of those slime tutorial videos, the ones on the mommy crafters forums, and used some of your charcoal you use on your teeth when you believe they are extra yellow.”

“Extra?” Annie was offended, but Abed didn’t really care.

“Then after the Xenomorph goo was completed, I put it in a container and on the counter above the air conditioner vent. In the morning it was completely gone, most of it I assumed just evaporated, but some of it leaked down on the wall and into the vent. Don’t know how it could have made its way to the air conditioner fan though, there was nowhere for it to slide.”

“So what you're telling me is,” Troy started, starting to feel very tight in well, the tight space he was in, “That I am face to face with Xenomorph plasmafied goo?!?!?”

“Yes, well Xenomorph plasmafied goo that I created myself, but I guess it sort of has a mind of its own.”

Annie hit him, “Abed!”

Troy started hyperventilating, it wasn’t really that he truly believed that that was actual Xenomorph goo, but Abed made it sound like it was and he fully trusted Abed and oh my god it was going to inch its way towards him any time and manifest into a face hugger and hE NEEDED OUT RIGHT NOW.

“Get me out get me out get me out!” He yelled frantically, pulling on the rope as he tried to push himself backwards. He felt both Annie and Abed pulling him backwards, helping him out of the vent by pulling his ankles to get his body through.

He was gasping heavily, looking around frantically while both Annie and Abed looked down at him by their feet. He watched as Abed knelt down quickly, right in front of Troy. He took Troy’s face in his hands, his right hand holding Troy’s chin using his pointer and thumb, moving his head around as if checking for any damages, his left hand just softly holding the right side of his face. His hands felt soft, and Troy just stared at Abed’s focused face looking him over, Troy almost losing his breath completely.

“Annie,” Abed turned and looked up at her, “get a popsicle from the fridge, Troy likes orange.” She nodded and went into the kitchen, making Abed look back at his best friend.

“Popsicle?” Troy barely got out, his heart was beating a million miles an hour. Abed was still holding his face in his hands, basically caressing it and Troy was too stunned to move.

“You’re burning up, I suspect it’s from there being no air conditioning, I'm sorry about that by the way, and you being in a tiny little space. You’re basically sweating at this point.” Troy blinked once, then twice, and before he had to say anything Annie was already there with a popsicle in hand. She handed it to Troy who thanked her with a small smile, sucking it softly with a content hum. Abed smiled softly at him before patting Troy’s face twice with his palm, standing up and going into their blanket fort room without a second thought.

Annie and Troy gave a look, before both of them shrugged, Troy trying to act like that wasn’t the most nerve racking thing that ever happened to him.

“He’s been watching _way_ too many of those doctor shows.” She said, turning around and leaving.

As Annie went into her room, Troy stood up, Popsicle in hand and his mind racing with thoughts of confused emotional panic. He couldn’t get his brain to stop picturing Abed’s face inches away from his, how Abed’s tongue slowly ran across his bottom lip while focused, how Troy’s heart sped up so fast that he could barely breathe. He could even still feel Abed’s hands on his face, his thumb and pointer finger cupping his chin firmly as he moved Troy’s head around.  
\--

He assumed that that was just a spur of the moment feeling, that he was stressed and disoriented, and that Abed just helped ground him when he was freaking out. But as days went by, Troy realized this feeling wasn’t going away any time soon.

He didn’t quite understand what was going on, of course he knew, at least in the very deep depths of his soul he knew. He wasn’t unfamiliar with feelings that resembled this, the thing was he never felt it for a man, much less his bestest friend ever. Years of being taught that these feelings were not normal, the only logical explanation to him was that he just was still in that same panicked state of mind. For some reason..

\---  
“Okay, another day of studying finally done, good riddance,” Jeff said, all of them closing their books while he put his feet up on the table, taking out his phone, “What is everyone up to this weekend?”

“Well Britta and I are having a girls night over at her apartment.” Annie said, Britta and her smiling at each other across the table. Jeff rolled his eyes, starting to text whoever the hell he always was on the phone with.

Troy looked over at Annie with widened eyes, Annie hadn’t left the apartment ever since the incident, she was too busy studying and didn’t have the time. Which meant Troy didn’t feel as weird because at least it was Troy, Abed, and Annie watching movies and having dinner. The only time he had to be alone with Abed in their apartment was when they would go to bed, he had been trying to avoid any other alone time that was presented. This was not good at all.

Abed leaned over as Troy was still phased out of reality, “Troy, we can finally have a session in the dreamatorium without Annie interrupting us.”

He turned to Abed, his eyes still kinda wide but he was trying to hide how that made him feel. Abed was smiling triumphantly, and Troy could barely get a smile up on his lips. “Yayy.”

Abed leaned away slowly as his smile got slightly smaller, Troy facing back to the rest of the group, his posture stiff and his face trying to mask the sheer fear invading his body. He glanced around as everyone else talked about their plans, his eyes landing on Jeff, who was already staring back at him with his eyebrows raised.

He gave a questionable nod, trying to see if Troy was alright, all Troy did was stare back at him with more fear in his eyes than he was showing before. Jeff rolled his eyes but gave him a look of “Let’s talk after” which made Troy feel a little better, but also even more terrified. What if Jeff judged him, thought he was strange and this was just something Troy was exaggerating and worrying too much about. Jeff was his best choice though, he was the one that cared the least, but also cared enough to be there for him. Annie and Britta would obsess over it, Shirley and Pierce have already presented their thoughts on the subject, and Abed, well he was too scared to even think about what Abed would say or think.

He felt Abed look at him every once in a while, his gaze lingering on Troy more than what Troy wanted at the moment. He knew Abed was beginning to suspect something, luckily everyone was basically done talking, already packing their things and getting up from their seats. Troy grabbed his bag from behind his chair, getting up and setting it on the table. Abed already packed up, having his backpack on and was waiting for Troy.

“Hey guys, sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, Britta and I discussed it in class today so it was a spur of the moment type of thing, you know how that is..” Annie said as she walked up to them, smiling from ear to ear. It was obvious she wanted slight praise for not planning it.

“It’s okay, Troy and I have a lot of stuff to do together that we haven’t had the chance to do in awhile. I hope you and Britta have fun.” Abed told her, looking down to her as she patted his shoulder.

“Have fun you two!!” With that she left the classroom, only leaving Troy, Abed, and Jeff.

Troy tried not to make it seem weird, after putting his backpack on he turned and gave Abed a small smile as Jeff slowly started to walk up to the two. “Abed could you wait by my locker, I’ll be there in two seconds, uh me and Jeff have to talk about.. stuff. “

“Stuff? What do you mean?”

“Uh…..” Troy choked, why wasn’t he saying anything, why was he frozen in his tracks, Abed and him just keeping eye contact for what seemed like eternity.

“Sports stuff. You know how Troy is, he and I have been figuring out a good workout regime for him, right Troy?”Jeff stated, putting his hand on Troy’s back, Abed following his hand with his eyes as he did so. He patted his back firmly, enough to make Troy snap out of it and nod profusely.

“Yeah, yeah I’ve been wanting to figure out how to uh- how to keep my body healthy.”

Abed looked at Troy, who gave him a forced smile, and then at Jeff, who gave him a closed mouth smile, the one he does when he’s getting annoyed. Troy hated lying to him, he wanted to just come out and tell him everything, but this was so much bigger than just a little secret.

“Okay... Just don’t take too long, we’re wasting time that could be spent on important things.” Abed reluctantly said, looking at the two of them weirdly, give them one more once over before he turned and left. Jeff and Troy remained that way until Abed was out of sight, before Jeff smacked him in the back of the head, his smile immediately gone.

“Ow, what the hell was that for?” Troy exclaimed, putting his hand on the back of his head and rubbing it.

“That’s for being the most obvious human being in the world. You do know that you are not good at hiding how you are feeling right? I could feel your energy from across the room, probably on the other side of school too.”

“Energy, what are you talking about? Wait.. do you know?”

Jeff shrugged, sitting down on the edge of the table. “I have a guess. I notice things to do with you towards Abed a lot. You sneak glances at him in class. Give him things, like your last chicken nugget if you think he’s still hungry, even when I ask first, and you talk about him when he isn’t even the subject of the conversations. Lately though, I’ve noticed a shift. it’s like you want to get away from him as much as possible, even though he is still your only center of attention. I’m not one to really, you know, care, but what happened? Obviously it has been getting to you, whatever it is.”

Troy sighed, shifting his feet around before sighing again. “It’s complicated, kind of.. I don’t know.” He looked at Jeff who just crossed his arms, waiting for Troy to explain. “Okay um, it started a bit ago, I was stuck in a vent, there was xenomorph goo and I got freaked and so after being pulled out, AbedheldmyfaceinhishandsandIthinkIrealizedi’minlovewithhim?” He sped out the end, making Jeff stare back at Troy, blinking a couple of times as he tried to process everything that just spat out of Troy’s mouth just then.

“Okay, what?” Jeff’s face became a big look of confusion, touching the bridge of his nose with his fingers, as though he had a headache. “Firstly I don’t have any clue what the hell you are talking about with the vent thing and frankly I don’t want to know. Secondly, You just figured it out? Like seriously, you guys still are that oblivious?? Guess I owe Britta ten bucks.”

Troy opened his mouth and closed it, like a fish, he just was so shocked. He didn’t think he was that obvious, but to the point where they were betting on it? How could Jeff see and know what his true feelings were before Troy himself knew? What did he mean by you guys, both of them? And why did it make him feel dizzy, like he ran in a circle for hours. He was very confused, everything Jeff said was overwhelming, and Troy didn’t know how to process any of it. He could feel himself start to pace back and forth, Jeff sighing before getting back up on his feet.

“Troy, I shouldn’t have said it like that, I’m sorry.”

Troy kept pacing, he didn’t understand why he didn’t stop, why he couldn’t get his thoughts together. He just felt like he needed to keep doing it.

“Troy.” Jeff grabbed him by his upper arm, stopping him from pacing anymore. He was breathing heavily, feeling sick and like he was gonna pass out. Suddenly he was tackling Jeff into a big hug, tears in his eyes as he grabbed onto the older man, who made an oof sound in response. He didn’t know why it meant so much to him to feel Jeff hold him, he had a feeling it was to do with feeling accepted by someone, anyone. He felt Jeff’s arm slowly snake their way around his body, hugging him back while Troy cried softly into the other man’s t-shirt.

“Hey, uh hey, you’re okay, okay? I know how hard and strange some feelings may feel, trust me.”

“I’m so scared Jeff, I shouldn’t be feeling this way, at all. I- what if he hates me? I’m straight. It isn’t right, everyone says it isn’t normal.” Troy mumbled into Jeff’s shirt.

He could feel Jeff chuckle, “He won’t hate you Troy, seriously. But you do know i’m bisexual right?”

Troy’s eyes widened as he pulled back, still holding Jeff as he stared at him in shock. “What?”

“If you are confessing, it’s only fair that I do too. The way I see it, sexuality is just something people use to judge you by. People are just hot, so I don’t really force myself into a label, but bisexual makes the most sense to people.”

Troy smiled softly at that, fully pulling away while wiping his tears as Jeff smiled back at him. “Just because you feel fully attracted to girls, doesn’t mean you can’t love Abed. Do you associate your love for him as being with a guy, or being with Abed?”

Troy thought about it for a second, he did only think of it as being with Abed, but what he thought wasn’t what could be the truth.

“Just because I am in love with him, it doesn’t mean he feels the same way.”

Jeff nodded slowly, crossing his arms, “Which you could be right about, or completely wrong about. The only thing truly standing in your way is you and how you feel about the whole situation. But if something does go wrong or he doesn’t feel that way, it doesn’t mean you guys won’t still be friends. You're Troy and Abed, remember?”

Troy nodded, Jeff really was helping and he couldn’t be more thankful for it. “You’re right. I still need to come to terms with some things, but I appreciate you telling me this stuff. I really needed to hear and think of this stuff the way you are letting me. I’m just scared about today, I don’t know if I can keep this a secret for much longer.”

“I say just let things happen as they happen, whenever you feel is right.”

Troy smiled at Jeff, Jeff giving him a genuine smile back. Jeff gave him a small squeeze on his right shoulder, before he watched as Jeff’s eyes shifted to look behind his shoulder, making him turn around to see Abed standing there, a small and almost unnoticeable frown on his face.

“Troy I have been waiting for almost 15 minutes.” Abed shifted his eyes from Troy to Jeff, noticing how close they were standing to each other, and how Jeff’s arm fell when he walked in the room. That made his frown become a little more evident. “Are you guys done talking?”

“Yeah, Abed, we are.” Jeff said reassuringly, and Troy nodded in agreement.

“Thank you.” Troy said to Jeff, giving him a soft and small hug in appreciation. Jeff hugged back with a squeeze, releasing him a second after. Jeff smiled at him once again when they broke away, before Troy went over to Abed, Jeff taking his phone out again and leaving the study room with a small “goodbye nerds.”

They walked in silence for a little bit, heading towards the front entrance.

“Jeff and you seem very close. I didn’t know you guys were that good of friends, I've never really seen you two talk except every once in a while when Jeff wants the homework.” Abed said as they walked out of the school, their arms almost rubbing up against each other as they walked. Troy gripped the straps of his backpack firmly, already becoming nervous once more. Nervous enough to not really notice the slight firm tone of voice Abed had, almost as though he was gritting his teeth as he said it.

“Yeah, Jeff and I are pretty… tight.” Troy slapped himself in his thoughts, like Jeff had said, how obvious could Troy be? “He, uh *ahem*, he’s been helping me deal with some things going on with my family. You know how they can get..” He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. This was NOT going well, and every word that escaped out of his mouth made him want to dig a deeper and deeper hole and never come out.

“You never tell me any of your family issues. Why? Is it because I’m aloof? Or weird?” Abed’s voice became softer when he said weird, making Troy stop in his tracks.

Troy looked at him funny, “Abed, I don’t like talking to you about my personal at home issues because I’d rather be talking to you about actual important things. Jeff is just there to rant to, you are here to be a part of every other aspect of my life.” Troy said without thinking twice about, well until after he said it. He shut his mouth after that, his cheeks heating up as he tried not to look at Abed.

They walked in silence the rest of the way after that, Troy too flustered and embarrassed to start conversation after saying such a bold and almost risky statement, at least risky in Troy’s mind.

Abed though, he seemed almost content with the answer given, smiling softly as they got in his car and drove home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is how I think Abed's life went, let's hope it's okay. TRIGGER WARNING: there is Xenophobia present in this chapter!! Also, I found out that his mother left when he was 6, but I wrote 7th grade. Doesn't matter too much but yeah, I found that out.

Abed never truly understood many feelings, he felt them for sure, but for some reason his brain always seemed to block out the explanation for them. It was almost like a giant forcefield, and most days Abed would feel so blocked, so confused, that his feelings and thoughts manifested into small obsessions. Movies were a big thing, Abed had relied on movies his whole life, especially after his mother never came back. They helped express his emotions in certain ways, of course many things were exaggerated, but honestly, that was exactly how Abed would have portrayed them.

Then it became people. People had always been a part of Abed’s life, his family especially, but when he finally went to school for the first time, well people were really interesting. He liked watching what his classmates would do and say, picking up on certain quirks and traits that were recurring in kids. Imagination, energy, curiosity. Sometimes when he would sit on one of the benches at recess or sit in a chair during playtime, his classmates would look at him funny, as though he didn’t belong there.

“Abed, why don’t you play with the other kids?” His teacher asked him one day in 3rd grade, it was rainy that day, Abed remembers clearly, so they were playing inside. 

He shrugged, looking at her and then towards the other kids. “They said to sit here. Everyone said that to win the game I would have to sit in this chair. If I make it through the end of playtime, they'll be my friends. I mean I already played the first test, I had to give them my food and maybe they would consider it. I’m not entirely sure if they remembered that game, but I don’t mind. ”

“They did? Abed, why don’t we get up and talk to them together?” She sounded very worried and confused, almost in disbelief. Abed figured she was in on the game.

“Now I know that you’re in on the game too, you want me to get up so I lose.”

“Abed sweetie, you keep playing okay? I’m going to have a word with your parents on the phone.”

“Why?” He asked her, now he was confused. What would his parents have anything to do with this, they couldn’t have heard about the game.

“I just want to talk to them about how good you are handling everything that you have already gone through. About how good you are doing in school!”

Abed smiled a little at that, “Okay.” Was all he said, before she smiled at him and left to her desk. He waited in the chair until play time was over, except when he asked his classmates if tomorrow was the first day of them all being his friend, they just laughed at him. Interesting, he didn’t say anything funny, but maybe they laughed because it was a silly question, that of course he was going to play with them tomorrow, he passed the game.

That was until his parents came. He remembers playing with a little robot toy in the class while his parents and teacher talked. Abed noticed their dynamic with his teacher, they clearly were upset about something, but so was the teacher herself.

“But Abed is our boy, what makes him so different from the other kids?” He heard his mother say.

Different. Abed heard that word only a couple of times, at least the times that he remembered. So what was different, what did Abed have that made him different?

His parents got up after a long while, finally telling Abed that they were leaving. The whole ride back he listened to his parents argue, about Abed mostly. It wasn’t until a few days after, that he knew something was wrong.

Everyday after lunch recess, instead of going to the classroom like the other kids, he seemed to find himself in a room next to the front office. It was decorated excessively, many phrases Abed had never even heard before. She seemed to ask him questions for about a half an hour each day, and soon Abed figured out what she wanted to hear. She liked hearing about what he said about his classmates, she called them his friends one time and that made Abed smile widely, at least she understood he won the game. He told her everything he knew about them, their favorite games, their favorite books and movies, even their favorite color. It was easy to observe a classmate and then tell her everything, he figured out, her interest honestly made him more interested.

He talked to her almost every single year, up until 6th grade, a year before his mother left. His parents were fighting extra during that time, and although Abed pushed it in the back of his head, every single thing pointed to when the main character loses a parent. For the character it gives them a better perspective of life, a lesson learned, but Abed wasn’t in a movie. He hoped it wasn’t true, that fate was different, but to be honest it wasn’t the biggest surprise. 

His mom and dad tried to keep things away from Abed as possible, so while he tried his best to read the situations and conversations, he truly felt in the dark, and even more shut out from his emotions. He barely talked to his therapist about anything important, not like he really did in the first place, but he did start opening up to her every once in a while. His parents told him he wasn’t to see her anymore, he didn’t really know why, but it honestly didn’t matter to him that much. 

“She hasn’t helped! At all!! I'm not going to keep paying extra just for him to not change in any way!!” He heard his dad say one night to his mom, who was stressed with something already. 

“Why do you want me to change so badly?” Abed asked as he stood in the archway into the kitchen, making both his parents look up quickly with wide eyes.

“Abed, honey. We don’t want you to change. Not at all.” His mom went over to him, he was already pretty tall already, and she didn’t even have to kneel anymore to talk to him. She hugged him as he looked over at his dad, who had a shameful face on his features. Even to this day, Abed could feel that hug, it was one of the only other times his mom hugged him before she left.

7th grade was the worst year Abed had experienced in his life, his emotions were way too overwhelming for him to process anything correctly, and he still blocks that time out of his mind as much as possible. 

He remembered the night before she left, before she left without explanation or warning. She decided that she wanted to make a nice dinner for them, the traditional dutch dinner she always made during the holidays, Aardappel, Vlees, Groenten. After dinner they watched a movie, Raising Arizona, one of his mom and his favorite movies. His dad even enjoyed watching it, and Abed felt that maybe they were finally a true family again. Then, his mom wanted to tuck him into bed and read his favorite bedtime story, Guess How Much I Love You. 

As he fell asleep, he remembers her kiss his head softly, whispering, “Jij betekent zoveel voor mij, Abed.” 

You mean so much to me, Abed. 

\--

The rest of the time in school was not a pleasant one. He had gotten through middle school pretty easily, besides a couple of people that picked on him, he was okay with being a loner. 9th grade year was a close second to 7th grade, not only was he in a new school with older kids, that was also the year of 2001.

He was only 14 when it happened, he was still just a kid. Yet after 9/11, he had never felt as much hate as he did during that time, and many months after. He mostly was shunned, which wasn’t much different than his other time in school, but when he started getting letters in his locker depicting him being burned alive, hanged, even shot in the head, that was when he realized how life truly was.

Even helping his dad at his Falafel shop caused vandalism, slurs thrown, and death threats, and his dad didn't get much business for a very long time after. Being shoved into lockers or getting smacked in the back of the head while walking through the halls became normal, and although he figured the closest emotion he could compare his feeling to was anger, he didn’t do anything, afraid of someone taking it as a threat and suspending him from school.

High school became miserable, slowly dying down only by senior year. He made two friends his entire high school career, the janitor that he talked to while he ate his lunch in the bathrooms, and his stand partner in band. His dad forced him to play the trumpet, and although he personally wouldn’t have gone with that instrument, if it made his dad happy and kept Abed occupied, he was okay with it.

He had many mental breakdowns, luckily only once or twice in class, squealing scarily high as he completely shut down. No one helped him, his dad even had a hard time calming him down, and the only person who had calmed him down before was his mother. Being so overwhelmed with emotions and not being able to feel them correctly was something Abed despised, and he knew that that was never gonna change. 

After he graduated, he helped his dad with his Falafel shop for about 2 years, before he got that flier for Greendale at the frozen yogurt shop. Then he met Troy.

Freshman year of college started out boring and uneventful the first day or two. He had a dorm, he just felt the need to get away from his father, not like he had a small scholarship that helped with housing. He was enrolled in Spanish 101, a class that he thought was gonna be boring and simple, since he already knew 3 languages. He talked to Britta, and he also met Jeff, who he already figured out was only really talking to him because of his liking for Britta, but at least he was already making “friends”, at least what Abed thought of as friends. 

So when Britta asked for him to find new people to join their study group, he was all for it. More people to get to know and study behavior of, maybe even actually become good friends with them. He talked to Annie first, a chatty girl, who was ecstatic to be invited. Then Shirely, who said thank the lord, he knew it was because she had no clue what the first page of their textbook even read. Pierce, who immediately asked Abed if he was going to force Pierce to wear a strapon bomb, was surprised but happy to be invited. 

Then he talked to Troy. He was at the vending machines in the cafeteria, trying to straighten out a wrinkled dollar he had in his front pocket. Abed already felt a sense of trust radiating off of the younger man, but he was also a little hesitant because he was wearing a letterman jacket. Almost every kid that wore one at Abed’s high school seemed to always have something to say about him. 

“Hi.” Abed said, standing behind Troy, watching as Troy jumped and spun around, in a karate pose Abed knew too well. “Why are you in Kickpuncher’s fighting stance he does in Kickpuncher 2?”

“What?” Troy was confused, before looking at his body before coughing, “Oh-uh no reason. Heh heh... Abed right?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Troy.” Troy said, putting his hand out for Abed to shake. 

“I know. Do you want to join a study group for spanish?” Abed asked without acknowledging Troy’s hand, making Troy slowly put his arm down as he knew Abed wasn’t gonna return the handshake. 

“Um sure.”

“Great. We’re meeting in 10 minutes in the large study room near the office.” 

Troy smiled softly, coughing a little bit because of the awkward tension. “Okay, yeah. Awesome, I’ll see you there.”

Abed returned the smile, a little forced, before going up to the machine and hitting it. There was a long clunking noise before the bottle landed at the bottom, Abed pushing the little part open, grabbing the bottled water and handing it to Troy. Troy blinked once or twice before coming back to reality, laughing a little in nervousness as he grabbed the bottle from Abed.

“T-thanks, um how did you know that was gonna happen?” Troy asked confused, almost looking at Abed in full disbelief.

“I didn’t.” 

With that Abed left, heading towards the study room as Troy just watched him walk away.  
\---

As weeks went by and the study group got closer, Troy and Abed were almost already inseparable. They had so much in common, way more than Abed could ever even imagine, and they seemed to just go together. It got to the point where they would meet in Abed’s dorm an hour before school even started, just to talk and watch stuff together.

They’d either have breakfast in Abed’s room, mostly just cereal, lucky charms to be exact. Or they would go to the cafeteria together, and although the breakfast food was probably the worst out of all of the meals of the day, it just let Abed and Troy bond even more. They always sat at the same table every day, each of them getting one part of the breakfast so that they could try both things they had to offer.

It even started getting to the point where whatever classes they didn’t have together, they would always meet up and walk to their next classes by each other’s sides, even though a couple of their classes were in opposite directions from each other.

Abed had never experienced a friendship like this before, technically just a human bond in general like this, besides his mom. So when he started feeling a little bit too close with Troy, he honestly couldn’t figure out how to process it. He didn’t even know what the feeling was, just that he had only felt it for Troy.

It was almost like he couldn’t live without him, which was crazy since he had never felt anything like that in his life. It kind of scared him, Troy was becoming everything to Abed, and last time that feeling was present in Abed's life, it was torn from him by the one who created that feeling for him.

He never wanted to lose Troy, maybe even more than how he never wanted to lose his own mother.

With everyone else, Abed studied them from head to toe, from thought to thought, breath to breath. But with Troy, he felt like he never had to. He wanted to be surprised by Troy, his emotions and thoughts and actions. He loved listening to him, and watching him, just because Troy intrigued him in a way no one else ever did.

Troy always confided in Abed, he told him basically everything that was ever on his mind, making it feel like the two of them were almost one being. Abed didn’t really have many explanations or the right words to put his thoughts into sentences, but he tried his best to tell him things. Troy was the first person besides his own family to know that Abed’s mom left a long time ago, and that Abed almost resented her for it, even if he himself didn’t understand what type of resentment he was feeling. He told him about the bullying, which made Troy’s blood boil, and he told Troy about his dreams to be a filmmaker and not run the family Falafel business like his dad wanted.

Troy was a good listener, he always seemed to remember things Abed would tell him, and he couldn’t appreciate someone more than he did with Troy. 

Even after 2 years of them being together, moving in together, never leaving each other’s side, Abed never lost the feeling of Troy being the most important person to Abed.

Which is why Troy ignoring him really really confused him, and forced his emotions to become very overwhelming. 

It was because of what Abed did, what he put Troy through. Troy’s response was what Abed was afraid of, Troy was acting like everyone who was forced to talk to Abed, he knew that this meant Troy wouldn’t ever feel the way Abed felt about him. Although he had a feeling of what his emotions towards Troy were, Abed never felt this way before, he honestly didn’t even think he was capable of feeling this way.

So when he saw Troy and Jeff that close, the smiles they had on their faces as they looked at each other, the way Troy hugged Jeff once more before leaving, it almost sickened Abed. He felt what he could only describe as angry, he hated seeing Jeff touching Troy, the lingering looks. Even the silent conversation at the study table between the two was as though Troy and Jeff were the ones who were best friends, not Troy and Abed.

Was it punishment for touching Troy the way he did?

It obviously freaked Troy out, his eyes were big and wide while Abed just tried to concentrate on if Troy had any injuries. His instincts just kind of kicked in, but the way he gently held Troy’s face, how he could feel every time Troy took a breath, it made him almost never want to let go. That’s why he immediately left after Troy got his popsicle, there was no need for him to do anything else, and so he resisted the urge to do what he himself wanted to do. If he just leaned in a little more…. No.

That wasn’t fair to Troy, and although he regretted it, he also was glad that he didn’t escalate the already terrifying and crumbling situation that was Troy and Abed’s friendship. 

Abed wanted to figure out what to do, he needed to see how Troy was with the two of them alone, since that was the one thing Troy seemed to want to avoid. Maybe it would get all of the tension out, maybe he could at least hear for himself that their friendship was done, instead of speculating as Troy distanced himself more and more. 

Assertive, but not out of the ordinary. Abed just hoped there was going to be at least a chance for him to apologize.


	3. Chapter 3

Abed opened their apartment door as Troy took his jacket off, putting it on the rack. He watched as Abed threw his keys into the little bowl on the kitchen counter, turning swiftly and smiling at Troy.

“So, dreamatorium, movie analysis, and self to self discussions. What do we want to do first?” Abed asked excitedly, making Troy smile softly because of how much he loved seeing Abed happy and excited. That didn’t change how his heart was beating out of his chest and his mind was spinning though, because all 3 required intimate conversation.

“Uhhh, what do you think we should do first?” Troy switched it back around, too nervous to actually decide. 

Abed stood for a minute, thinking about it intently. Troy looked over his features, Abed was actually so attractive, he honestly didn’t understand why he wasn’t already with someone else. 

‘I mean he does have a lot of girls who are in love with him’ Troy thought, ‘but that doesn’t mean they can handle the way that he is.’

After a second or two, Abed made his decision. He looked at Troy, Troy immediately looking away and pretending he was interested in the wall behind him.

“Dreamatorium should go first, we haven’t done that in a while, and then we can do a movie analysis. I have the list of movies, Annie also suggested expanding our horizons.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, breaking away from our usual action and largely based sci-fi movies. She was saying we should watch more dramatic and romantic type based movies. Which I mean, we don’t really analyze those types at all.”

“Right.. Alright then.” Troy said, his mind boggled, why did Abed have to listen to Annie and think of it right at this moment? God was torturing him, he had to have been. Maybe it was because he stopped praying, who knows but it was obvious he was angry at Troy.

“C’mon.” Abed said, grabbing Troy’s arm and dragging him into the Dreamatorium, Troy not processing that this was actually happening, and his life was compromising him in every way it can.

\--

It was actually going very well with the Dreamatorium, at first they started with little stories, mostly Inspector Spacetime scenarios, but now they were acting out what would happen if crazy movie scenarios happened with the study group. Abed always liked making the scenarios turn into the darkest timeline, which Troy was confused about but supported Abed’s “awareness”. He did think it was awesome that Troy was a cyborg who lost his voice, using a robotic control in his throat to speak.

Although there were only two of them, they both seemed to know exactly who the other was being, just by their stances and the way one of them sounded. 

“Troy.” Abed Evil Jeff called for him, they were currently in the library of the school, the team split up to cover all grounds of the school. Evil Abed and Evil Troy teamed up, but obviously Evil Jeff needed assistance for something.

“What is it Jeff?” Evil Troy asked, before Jeff took his hand and led him out into the hallway. 

“Why are you holding my hand?”

“Shut up.” Jeff nipped at him, making Troy shut his mouth in bewilderment.  
They finally stood face to face with each other, out in the hall as they held their weapons firmly. Jeff looked around suspiciously, like anyone could pop out of anywhere.

“I don’t think you and Abed should be teamed up with each other.”

Troy was even more confused, almost losing the illusion of how they perceived everything in the dreamatorium. He caught himself and pushed his mind back to the scenario in front of him.

“Why not? It’s always Evil Abed and Evil Troy, and plus you were the one to split us up into groups like this.”

Jeff took a second of thought before realizing that he did do that. “Well uh, he can switch with me, he’ll be with evil Annie. Then you and I can accomplish things together, like we should. You and Abed aren’t going to last forever, you know that right?”

Troy felt a drop in his stomach, like being on a rollercoaster, and started feeling very anxious. “What, why would you say that? Abed, why would you say that?”

That’s right, they were just in the dreamatorium, and that wasn’t Jeff at all. It was Abed. Abed was saying that to Troy, Abed was using Jeff to say those things to Troy. Why the hell would he say those things to Troy?

Abed just looked at Troy, almost startled at Troy forcing him to come back into reality. 

Troy’s mind was racing as they both stood by each other, looking at the other one like if they moved a mine would go off. Then it clicked, and Troy felt even worse.

“Is that what you think Jeff and I were talking about?” Troy asked, his breath becoming ragged and his eyes getting glossy. 

“Not entirely, but yeah, a little bit.” Abed finally spoke after a moment, looking away from Troy and down to his feet. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

Troy sighed, softly crossing his arms and looking at Abed. “I know, I’ve just been going through some stuff. Very personal and confusing stuff. I just was talking to Jeff because he’s experienced life once already. I wouldn’t ever want another person to be my best friend, you are the only person I truly love having around and caring about.”

Abed looked up at Troy, who was basically crying already, and smiled. “You really think that?”

“Absolutely. You mean so much to me Abed.”

Abed’s breath hitched, he hadn’t heard that phrase since 7th grade, and Abed knew that this meant so much more than when it was said last time. He felt tears in his eyes, he had only cried 3 times in his life, he wasn’t really good at manifesting his happy sadness physically. But he just couldn’t not feel this way, and soon enough he was pulling Troy into a big and comforting hug. 

They didn’t hug too much, they always just did their handshake, which was better sometimes, but this, this was exactly what they both needed.

Troy felt safe whenever he hugged Abed, and he couldn’t have felt more happy than right then. All of his fears melted away for a few moments in their embrace, and Troy knew that tonight was the night he would tell Abed.

\---

They didn’t have too many choices to choose from, and after ringing up Annie, they decided on this one movie called The Proposal, because that was one of the only movies Annie owned since they didn’t have really any rom-coms and didn’t want to buy any.

Abed had already seen the movie Miss Congeniality starring Sandra Bullock, and he recognized Ryan Reynolds from an episode of the X-Files, so he had at least a good sense of what type of actors they were. 

It was actually really funny, both of them laughed out loud a couple of times. They were at the scene when Sandra Bullock’s character and Ryan Reynolds' character get to know one another before they sleep. 

“You know, this movie is actually okay in my books.” Abed leaned over a little to talk, he was speaking quietly which made Troy almost let out a small chuckle, they were so used to Annie shushing them for being too loud, but now it was just the two of them. Troy leaned in to hear, and nodded his head. 

“Yeah, I didn’t know rom-coms could be actually funny.”   
Abed laughed a little, which made Troy grin, both of them reaching for popcorn at the same time. They bumped hands before the both of them retracted their hands out of the bowl, resulting in the bumping into one another once more. They looked at each other before quickly looking away, both of them now stiff and not going to get any more popcorn. 

After like 15 minutes more of silence, they both burst out at the same time, saying “I need to talk to you.”

Looking at one another with wide eyes, Abed paused the movie and said “You first.”

“No what were you gonna say.”

Abed sighed, he looked visibly nervous, something Troy had only seen a couple of times in their friendship.

“I-I’m sorry for what happened a couple of weeks ago.”

Shit.

“W-What?” Was all Troy could spit out, making Abed sigh again, this time looking at his palms. 

“I’m sorry for that day with the Xenomorph goo. I shouldn’t have touched your face so intimately, especially when you were already visibly panicked. I won’t ever do it ag-”

“I’m in love with you.” Troy blurted out, without thinking. He can’t believe he just said that out loud.

Abed looked extremely shocked, his eyes so wide and his mouth slightly open. 

“I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that at all.”

“I’m in love with you too.” Abed finally responded, and Troy couldn’t believe his ears.

After all of this time of worrying and panicking, Abed felt the same way towards Troy that Troy felt towards him. He couldn't grasp that this was actually happening.

“You are?” Troy finally got out, almost a whisper, watching as Abed noddly softly.   
“Yeah, I am. Have been for a while. I was just scared that you wouldn’t feel the same. So when I did that, and you started avoiding me, I thought I went too far, that you didn’t want anything to do with me after that. I was nervous for tonight, I thought you were finally gonna tell me you didn’t want to be my friend anymore.”

“I was avoiding you because I got scared, I didn’t want to face my feelings because they were nothing I had ever felt before. That is what I talked to Jeff about, about how I felt towards you.”

Abed smiled, he smiled so brightly that Troy thought he turned into a robot or something. He had never seen this Abed before, and he honestly loved it. Troy stood up and Abed after, and they immediately hugged. Abed hugged him tightly, like he never wanted to let go, and they both started laughing with happiness, gripping each other even tighter.

As they pulled away, Troy suddenly got nervous again. “Can, can I kiss you?” 

Abed gave out a little ‘god yes’ and then they were kissing. It wasn’t a long kiss, but it was soft and sweet, filling Troy with a warm fuzzy feeling throughout his whole body. 

Abed’s lip were soft and it felt like everything Troy imagined it to be, and more. When they parted they touched foreheads, before Troy softly rubbed his nose against Abed’s, making both of them laugh as they kissed again.

When they parted once more, Troy stepped back a little, putting his hand out as he smiled excitedly. Abed knew exactly what to do.

“Troy and Abed are now boyfriends~” They both sang in unison, before doing their signature handshake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhhh last chapter!! hopefully I did well and portrayed them correctly. It is very hard to get them to be the way you want them to be, but I feel like they weren't really out of character. I hope you all liked it, this is part of a series I will be making about these two dorks. If you liked it, please tell me, and if theres anything you felt should be written differently, let me know!!


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